Mikyx on where Poby stands among LEC mids: “I’ll put him around four or five for now.”

After the series against Team Heretics, Ethan sat down with Mikyx to have a chat about the series, how Fnatic is doing heading into the last split before Worlds, and the latest addition to the team, Poby.

So first, how are you feeling with this unexpectedly tough game and tough match overall? Did you expect them to show up that strong?

Mikyx: I guess I feel a bit relieved that we managed to win. I kind of expect them to be decent. So yeah, I think the result wasn’t too unexpected because it’s not like we are insane, so it should be like a free win. But yeah, I think we managed to play well, the third game at least.

Ethan: Ok, so you feel like right now you’re not in the best shape?

Mikyx: No, I wouldn’t say so.

Ethan: Is there any specific reason or it’s just a global thing?

Mikyx: I’m not sure. I guess it’s like a global thing. I guess we were not doing that well in practice either. So it’s not like I was, you know, extremely confident. I don’t know how Heretics is doing. We only played with them once, I think, and they weren’t the greatest, but I think they usually play better on stage.

Ethan: To come back on your play style, I feel like players tend to say that Fnatic’s games have been too predictable in the sense that you’ve always oriented most of your plays towards bot lane and play very aggressively there.

So is it actually a problem for you that your game plans have been so one-dimensional in a way?

Mikyx: I mean, maybe, but I think in the first two games of this series we were pathing to top, so we [were] actually playing away. Maybe that’s why they were a bit stronger, maybe a bit harder games than the third one. But yeah, I think it’s always good to have more ways of playing or winning the game. I think being one-dimensional is never a good thing. But I just think it depends on the draft where you have to kind of path or play towards. It can definitely be a weakness to just have one sort of style.

Ethan: Is it something you kind of work on during the off-season or something, or wasn’t it that much of a topic?

Mikyx: I wouldn’t really say so. I don’t think we ever like talked about it more like in depth. I think it mostly just depends on drafts and usually we decide where we want to path or who we want to play towards during the draft. If there are angles for top, mid, they say it. And yeah, I think it just, I think Upset and I are a bit more vocal about what we can do around our lane, so naturally the pathing or [we] end up getting played around.

Your coach Grabbz also said there was a work ethic issue in the team. Would you say the dynamics have changed for summer?

Mikyx: Yeah, I think it’s definitely better than in winter and spring [splits], I think we could still do more. But yeah, I think it’s just like as decent. Usually when you make a change, it’s always going to be better at the start. For now, it’s better. We’ll see if we can keep that up so for the rest of the split. I guess we’ll see about it. But honestly, it was not a very high bar we had to like reach to say that we’ve had better work than the last split, for example.

Ethan: I feel like this offseason also was kind of blurred for you guys, right? Especially for your top side.

Do you think it might have affected the players that eventually stayed in any way?

Mikyx: Yeah, I mean it’s possible. I think maybe for Oscar, it impacted positively because he’s trying a lot harder, talks a lot more, and gives more of his opinions. I’m not sure if it affected Ivan (Razork). I feel like he still plays quite similarly, he like tries to talk a bit more to Poby to get on the same page and just plays duoQ and stuff like this.

Ethan: Because Poby is the newcomer, right?

Mikyx: Yeah. I think, besides that, I can’t really say if there was much of a difference.

I also wanted to have your thoughts on Poby. How has his integration so far been in the team?

Mikyx: I think it’s been quite solid. His English levels were better than I expected, at least. I [was] told he doesn’t really communicate very well; they had to talk with the translator when they talked to him during the offseason. I was a little bit concerned about that, but at least he’s able to communicate with us. And he is also very honest, which is nice.

He likes to say what is on his mind instead of just being like a bit maybe timid or shy and not wasting his thoughts.

So that’s nice. And just individually, he plays well, very solid laning. I think the only thing is maybe sometimes we have some miscommunications between each other, like we’re not on the same page as often during the game and stuff. But overall, pretty solid.

Ethan: Is he aware that he has been kind of a meme in Europe because of Caedrel’s copypastas and everything?

Mikyx: I’m not actually sure, but I know he knows Caedrel. I don’t know if he knows about the specific memes. I never really asked him.

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— LEC (@LEC) August 2, 2025

On a more serious note, how would you rank him right now among the LEC mid laners?

Mikyx: OK, so I’ll probably put him below Caps, Vladi, maybe Jackies. I don’t know about JoJo[pyun], maybe around 4th or 5th I guess. I think lane phase-wise, usually, he does quite well against everyone. But if I consider the whole package, I guess maybe I’ll put him around four or five for now.

Ethan: To close out the interview, we know that FNC has always been kind of a threat in the regular season, but it is in playoffs that you struggled the most so far, right?

What do you think will change for the team to keep up in the long run this time?

Mikyx: That’s a good question. I don’t know what we have to change. We have to be more consistent, I guess. [We] usually just play worse when it comes to playoffs.

Maybe that can change now that we have a sports psychologist with us. Maybe he can fix us in that regard to not have that big of a drastic difference between regular split and playoffs.

But I guess we just have to work on our drafts and gameplay, and make sure we’re actually improving if we wanna win playoffs. It’s hard to say at the moment. We just have to wait and see.

Ethan: We’ll leave it to that. Thank you very much, Mikyx. Good luck with what’s next and hope you’ll have a better result in practice.